


Shattered

by Oft



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-01
Updated: 2012-03-08
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:54:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oft/pseuds/Oft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WHAT IF . . . Tron had become the Dictator?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in the order you see, and I could have rearranged them, but . . . they felt right in the order they were in. So I left them as is.
> 
>  
> 
> It will also have more adult snippets in it later, so the warning is getting changed.

Flynn backed up, the walls of the building junction keeping him from retreating too far. Yellow crackled up and through his friend’s icy blue circuits, growing stronger by the moment. Steel grey eyes locked with his blue, and that stoic expression held for a moment before a smile broke across it. Flynn thought for a fleeting moment that everything was fine, he HOPED everything was fine, that Tron was fine, till the words came tumbling out.

“My programming is to protect the system and the users. What better way to protect you than to keep you locked away safe? No one will ever have the chance to use you again, Flynn, and the system will be safe from _you_.” And the circuits went completely gold as Tron reached forward and grabbed Flynn by the throat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Flynn, you don't understand. The modifications you made to Tron's programming to help me finish the work . . . he's gotten too zealous about it. Something's wrong.' Clu was even more worried about this than the increasing grid glitches, but Flynn chalked it up to having put too much on his admin's shoulders.

"Lighten up, Clu. Tron's only doing what he's always done. You know it's not in him to work against the good of the system. You just need a break, man." Clu slammed his fist into the table at that, the boom of contact making Flynn jerk away in a jolt and knocking the mindless smirk off his face. The reverbrations knocked a couple of the data pads to the floor, and drew the attention of programs on the other side of the room.

"NO, FLYNN. Something. IS. Wrong."

"And what is wrong, exactly? Anything I missed?" Both Flynn and Clu turned as the security program entered the room. "I highly doubt it." His heavy jacket brushed the floor as he stepped through the door, and the T circuits at his throat flashed brightly off color for just a moment. He stood feet away from the user and administrator, and the other programs quickly turned back to their work in alert silence. Flynn and his clone stared at Tron, but he merely looked over their heads to the grid map overhead, seemingly heedless of their concerns.

It was then Flynn felt the first shudder of distress in his friend's presence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alan-One's ok with these changes you're making?" Tron's brow furrowed at the query, watching Flynn poke through his code, changing a line here and there.

"Well, I need to make SOME changes, Tron. I'd prefer to leave you as is, but the rate of the incoming bug attacks keeps worrying me, and I don't want them EVER getting the better of you, man. Y'know?" Flynn looked to Tron, hoping he made logical sense to the program. Tron's lips tightened as he considered this.

"You're right. Having me better integrated with this system is a good idea." He sat patiently, legs crossed in meditation pase as Flynn finished with the adjustments. At some point, his friend finally declared he was finished and turned to replace Tron's disk.

"Ready?" Tron looked to the disk, then Flynn's smiling face, and nodded. He did not smile as Flynn turned and locked the disk, the override and reboot taking over. Tron's fingers curled in, making fists while the reboot happened, lights flashing out momentarily out of Flynn's sight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From his view in the building, one of the taller ones in Tron City, Flynn saw the lights to the city flicker out briefly before rengaging. The traffic of only recognizers was visible, and they were leaving the city in arcs towards the edge of the grid. 

"What is Tron DOING?" Flynn muttered to himself. He had tried tapping into the code from this room, but he hadn't had much luck. He wasn't willing to blow through the room yet, not knowing what programs were in the way of the blast, so he waited.

Then the flashes began. Out past the borders of the grid, right where the outlands stretched out, the recognizers wer blasting away the code. There were huge explosions of green voxels, destruction of grid bug colonies to be sure, but they were too close to the edge of the city. Within the cluster of explosions, he then saw the bridge go down in a snowfall of bits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was the break. Flynn turned to the door and put his fingers right into the code of it. It slid away with ease, and he saw no one in the either direction. 'Too easy' came through Flynn's head for a brief moment before going left. He snuck through three hallways to the closest doors for a lift down, but his luck ran out when the doors slid open and 4 guards were within with batons out. He turned heel to run back, but a second group waited for him. Tron stepped through them towards him.

"You never were very good at flexing your powers on the run, even on the old grid. You should have stayed in your room." Tron was within arm's reach, and he acted on it. Before Flynn even had the chance to duck Tron's grasp, the program had him by the wrist, twisting Flynn around and had him against the wall, his arm pulled back and taut, while Tron's other arm pinned Flynn's shoulder against the wall with a slam. He pulled up closer to Flynn where he could whisper.

"There are cycles where I have wished I could eject you from the system and drag Alan-One in. He would have been a far better creator for this system than you've been." Flynn was wrenched back around and shoved to waiting black guards.

"Take him back to his room and make sure he doesn't get a chance to work his power, or I'll derezz every last one of you." Tron's eyes were the hardest Flynn had ever seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clu breathed in labored cycles through the damage done by the guards that had turned on him. He had worked the grid's code to Tron's orders, but only long enough to find a way to Flynn. He had managed to clear a whole floor at the beginning of the recognizer attack array but he was found out rather quickly be a loyalist. After spending the last 2 microcycles being taught how to error out and fix his own code with the help of the weaponry that he had perfected for the guard against glitches, he was now glitching himself. Clu couldn't help but laugh a little at his predicament. But thoughts of perfecting his code against another round drove him; he had to get Flynn out. But he had to get out of this cell first. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You don't need to do this Tron. We've been friends for this long. . . "

"You've never been my friend. You're him, all the foillables, all the pointed focus while ignoring your surroundings, all the unwillingness to fix things from the ground up. The only thing you have over him is that you work within the system, you don't tear it up and scramble the code with a wave of your hand." Clu stiffened. He knew Tron well enough to know this was all the security program was going to say. Or rather, Dictator. He wasn't simple anymore. And he had decided that Flynn needed to be out of the picture. Flynn waited. He should have been doing something- one of his user tricks, but he was doing nothing. Clu finally understood Tron's frustration.

He drew his disk, white rim of light flashing on with a spin.

"Flynn." He breathed as Tron drew out his own weapons. "Run." Arcs of gold came at him from right and left, and he barely deflected both as he scrabled back, disk flashing in his hand. Sparks of ambience flew across his vision and he barely dove aside as Tron came down, cracking code of the street under his landing. When had Tron gotten that strong? Clu was wide-eyed as he slung his own disk at kneelevel before running at Tron, hoping to take him down with distraction. One arm hooked arond Tron's waist as the program turned to catch a returning disk, but searing pain erupted from Clu's port as the two toppled back. Tron slammed his elbow in once, twice as they rolled and Clu fell away enough to reach his feet again and capture his disk and turn to launch it to the ground where Tron . . . was no longer. The disk was now lodged in the street. A quick swipe to his hip grabbed the baton as Tron came at him from behind, twin disks coming down in a scream of light, baton deflecting them just barely.

"TRON! STOP THIS!" He could barely hear himself over the cacophony of the disks as they ate through the baton's code. Clu could not believe what he was seeing. He never coded the disks to do that. He caught Tron's eyes- his former friend's entire face was locked in concentration, steel eyes turning gold with the exertion of the fight. Clu brought up a knee to push Tron back, only to have Tron shift his weight and step in, blocking the move.

"I'll stop when you are gone." And the first of the disks broke through and ate into Clu's armor. His own scream was the last thing he heard, warbling in grating cycles into silence.


	2. Chapter 2

So now they stared at each other across one square of light. Flynn knew he wouldn't be able to hide long; Tron knew him too well, and now that the portal had fizzled into darkness, Flynn had nowhere to go. The dictator had come with a squad of blackguards- that had puzzled him, at least- there was no way that Tron would ever have trouble overpowering him. So now they stood, a standoff, in Flynn's outland quarters.

Tron made the first step forward and brought a hand up, thumb gently stroking Flynn's jawline. Flynn made no move to back away or deflect this time, and just looked up at his friend- *former* friend- with placid acceptance of whatever was to come.

"If you had just gone to the portal, if you had just left, I would have let you. I would have taken you myself. You ALWAYS have this way of testing every bit of patience I was coded with." Tron let his head sink forward, his brow now against Flynn's. "But I still like you. I might even say I love you, if it weren't for this." Flynn was biting his lip now, keeping himself from saying anything to make things worse for himself. "I just need you . . out of my way. We can do this easy, or . . . " He kissed Flynn then, gently, but his fingers slid down and tightened ever so slightly around Flynn's throat. Flynn half-heartedly returned the kiss, wondering what it was Tron was going to do with him. Almost as if he had broadcast it, Tron responded.

"I think it would be best if you did not come back to the city. Stay out here." Tron's hand brushed down Flynn's chest, gloves dragging on the shirt till it reached the the hem, then snuck up underneath to touch the smooth flesh of Flynn's stomach and up towards his chest again, fingertip brushing over ribs, then nipple, then along the collarbone. "But . . ."

"But?" That was the first word Flynn had said to him in quite some time. Tron smiled a little, stroking his hand back down Flynn's torso, leading his fingers under the waistband of Flynn's pants, then sharply yanked him forward.

"But you won't be alone." The smile didn't leave Tron's face, his grey eyes hardening again, and Flynn saw movement past Tron's shoulder. The Blackguards had shuffled about, and four of their number stood forward. "Masks." Tron's eyes hadn't left Flynn's, and something inside Tron twisted a little to see the shock dawn on Flynn's face when his guard removed their helmets.

The guards were all Tron.


	3. Chapter 3

The first night was the hardest. Flynn had always been a physical person, passionate, and Tron had never had problems keeping up.

Now Flynn was the one not keeping up.

All the guards left with him weren't just copies of Tron, the WERE Tron. It freaked him out that these programs had all of Tron's code, his abilities, his knowledge, his memories. And they played him easily. He had eventually just given himself over to the attention and the orders to play all those little tricks in bed that wound Tron up so much, but to have 4 of the program, touching, pushing, kissing, fucking, pulling- Flynn finally collapsed exhausted while the guards continued to touch and pet before finally joining him in recharge mode.

Now Flynn lay awake, two of the guards still on the bed, one draped over him comfortably, idly stroking his leg. He pulled his pillow close and clenched his jaw. This situation had been a fleeting fantasy before, but now that he had it, it was the last thing he wanted.

Tron was intent on killing him with kindness.


	4. Chapter 4

The dictator himself came back in time, something akin to months by Flynn's reckoning.

He was laid out on the bed, not because he was tired, but because there was no point for him to get up anymore. Flynn's arm was sprawled upwards, covering his face from the light, one knee upraised under the sheets. Tron had ordered his guard to leave a millicycle before, so just he and Flynn occupied the room. Tron's boot's stepped gently across the floor, no scuff or squeak betrayed his presence as he walked to the edge of the bed and looked down at Flynn's face. Or at least, what part he could see.

One gloved hand gently grasped his wrist, lifting his arm upwards. Flynn squinted in the light as he looked up.

"Hey, Tron. Come for another show?" Tron smirked and let out the slightest snort of amusement.

"Get dressed. We'll sit at the table tonight."

"Oh, so I get DINNER at least. So kind." Flynn's voice carried a bit of impudent tone, but Tron just ignored him. He dropped Flynn's arm and turned, depositing his own body into the nearest chair at the afore-mentioned table, and idly picked up a fine glass filled with glowing liquid.

Flynn managed to rezz up something comfortably respectable in short order, and sat across from Tron. He didn't bother with the niceties; they had passed that point long ago.

"So what brought you down off your mountain? Can't be for concern for me. I mean, you'rve got your eyes on me all the time."

"I wanted to see how my friend was doing myself." Flynn snorted at that.

"Man, we're not friends anymore. You made sure of that."

"And you made sure I became this." They stared at each other over the glasswork.

"Well, you make damn sure I can't fix it either." Flynn drank from his own glass, letting the sweep of energy fill him.

"What's stopping you now? It's just me and you in here. No guards."

"Because really, man, it's not worth it. I don't know how many of your guard you made into you, but if I turned you back, one of them would just step up, and then this just starts all over again. Not worth it at all." Flynn murmured the last words into his drink as he emptied the glass, then set it down with a resounding clank. Tron's eyes never left Flynn's face, his expression set, almost with concern. He watched Flynn's jaw flex with the drinking, and studied that wavy hair as it brushed over the collar before he snapped his eyes back to Flynn's own. 

"I didn't know you'd break so easy. I would be disappointed if this were the old system."

"Tron, there's a difference between breaking and accepting. I've accepted I'm here. For GOOD. If there was a way out, I would fight still. . ."

"Or you could just . . . ask." Blue eyes darted back to meet Tron's. Flynn looked as if he was almost daring to trust Tron's words. "I still have your linkup from the outside. Alan One's number? I can send the code out." Flynn's jaw dropped slightly.

"You're not supposed to know about that." Tron shrugged noncommittally as he raised his own glass again.


	5. Chapter 5

Flynn found himself on top of the table now, Tron being absurdly fast between removing his own coat and removing Flynn from his seat. The program now had Flynn’s legs spread, thighs pressed apart with each hand, and pulling him against Tron. His circuits were already headed off into lavender, and Flynn had no defense against Tron’s assault as he leaned forward, pinning the user between the table and his body while one hand came upwards to hook into Flynn’s hair, pulling his head back to expose his neck to Tron’s teeth. Flynn’s response was unintentional and immediate, already hard as Tron ground his hips down between Flynn’s legs. Fingers dug into fabric and pulled the layers apart, baring Flynn’s skin to Tron’s practiced mouth. Flynn couldn’t help but groan at the heat radiating between them both, teeth and tongue and lips nipping and lapping at every line of Flynn’s torso. There were tricks that Tron’s copies couldn’t get quite right- this was definitely the original program. 

Tron worked down and pulled away the rest of Flynn’s clothes, mouth already working down around Flynn’s hard cock. It was Flynn’s turn to bring his fingers down to grab Tron’s hair, his head leaned back in ecstasy as Tron lapped and sucked on him. Tongue followed the trail on the underside of his shaft, leading around the head before Tron let go, lips leading back up the centerline of Flynn’s torso back to his neck. He let his hands roam over Flynn’s unmarked skin, nails digging into his sides and raking upwards, pinching gently at the sensitive nipples before circling the dark skin there and back up to his throat. Flynn was shuddering now, his erection thrusting absently against Tron’s circuitry. Tron slipped one hand around Flynn’s throat, letting the thumb press in just enough to get Flynn’s attention, just enough to pause the scene, and lock his own grey eyes with Flynn’s blue.

Flynn let his fingers come up to Tron’s face, tracing his lips before Tron drew them into that wide smile. Then Tron pushed forward, filling Flynn in one move. Flynn dug fingers in where they lay against Tron, a pained groan erupting as Tron dropped all his weight onto Flynn. pushing in to the hilt. Flynn felt the slight sizzle of the circuits that ground against him and within, but it couldn’t draw away the burn of entry just yet. Tron lay still, claiming Flynn’s mouth once more as his hands moved down, grasping Flynn’s thighs to wrap about his waist. And only when Flynn’s groans turned into something more pleasurable did Tron begin to piston away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again with loss of time. Flynn would be annoyed if he weren’t absolutely lost in ecstacy. AGAIN. Some of the guards had returned; he didn’t know when this happened. His awareness was limited to Tron embracing him, inside him, trapping him, and now there were more hands, more mouths, all fighting for dominance over him. They had ended up in the energy pool- some distance from the table, the bed, inside- passing him between them like a beloved toy.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if there were links, or if they passed data and memories between their disks, but the thought was stopped short with the exit of one body to be replaced by another, filling him, hands under thighs and on chest and roughly pulling on his own erection. He’d lost track of how many times he had shuddered to orgasm, cradled in half sleep until the lull in activity and energy picked up once more, and he was trapped between bodies and mouths and hands again. At some point he gave in to unconciousness and slept, dreaming of the old grid and ice blue lattice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flynn awoke in bed once again, completely lost to the track of time, but alone. Part of him missed the feel of Tron’s touch covering his body, but he was also relieved to be on his own for once. He slid off the sheets and rezzed up clothing before venturing out to the balcony again. But there was one here, to his surprise, leaning over the railing looking out to the city.

“Original or copy?” He felt stupid for asking the moment Tron chuckled.

“I wonder if you can even tell yet.”

“They’re not . .. THAT good at certain things.” Flynn caught himself grinning a little. 

“I’m going to leave you alone for a while Flynn. But don’t come into the city.” Tron stood to his full height once again and turned toward Flynn, body covered in black highlighted with gold. “I get the feeling it’ll be good to let you do whatever it is you want without me hovering over your shoulder out here. But …” he paused almost as if expecting Flynn to argue the point.

“I knew the ‘but…’ was coming.” Ah, there was one of his smart responses.

“But… ” Tron stepped up, chest to chest with the user. “If you recreate Clu, I will derezz him faster than you think possible. Don’t do it.” There was the streak of hard threat, and Flynn had no doubt that Tron would follow up on it. Flynn just regarded the dictator with sad disappointment as the program strode back inside to leave.

“You never did answer my question, about the link.” He stared in after Tron, watching the program slow just for a step, enough to look over his shoulder and throw a smile back before continuing to the platform down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a race now. Flynn never was any good at listening, and now he was on a definite crash course with Tron’s guards as he dragged Clu behind, hurrying him get him inside before sealing off the entrance. He was getting better at employing his user skills on the fly now. Clu still was trying to get a handle on being the hacker and administrator; Flynn had also dumped a little of his user skills into the new Clu, and Clu was hastily trying to absorb that as well.


	6. Chapter 6

While Flynn stood guard at the entrance, concentrating on constantly shifting the code to reinforce the wall, Clu was busy coding another exit. At this rate, getting to the city core was going to take a cycle.

"Umm Flynn. We got a problem." Flynn visibly sunk down. Words he did NOT want to hear.

"Hit me, man." Clu looked at him oddly before parsing what Flynn meant.

"There's no connecting Grid to the tower. It's . . . it's a floater. One of the upper level platforms. There's an info link, but that's it, nothing solid."

"AND? You got the ability to MAKE ONE, man!"

"NO! This leads up. Unless I piggyback it to the underside of the EOL, we're gonna get blasted before we even get a quarter of the way there." Flynn rolled his eyes and put a little extra coding into the auto shuffle of the voxels outside. The wall was already resounding with booms from the recognizer hits. That done, Flynn rushed over and dug his fingers into the code that Clu already had up, shaking his head.

"That's the only thing I never could get around with you programs- always thinking straight ahead." His fingers skittered over code, pulling out diagrams that Clu never even knew were there. A few pokes around and tumbling data rerouted into place, right along the route that Clu brought up, only now it was inside the EOL's transit shaft, then a platform sat atop the building, waiting to go. Clu looked in astonishment at the layout, then at Flynn.

"How did you . . ."

"All in the wrist, man." Flynn flashed a momentary grin before the wall opened up to let them through.

The route led them under the lightcycle grid, just barely out of reach of the recognizers. Tanks couldn't get to them either, and bikes were right out of the question, having no firepower other than what riders carried. Flynn took a little effort to route them AROUND the undercity, mostly, but eventually had to hit the street level where the underside of the gridform ended, leaving only a thin layer of support voxels under where the EOL was located. There was a short run to the elevator shaft through sailer holds, and Flynn knew the place would be loaded with guards. Whether they were all Tron or not was a different question entirely.

A subtle peek through a thin layer of code behind the wall revealed minimal guards. Unnervingly few, in fact. And just regular sentries to boot. Flynn did not like this at all- he knew due to his security protocals, Tron would be well aware of area breaches, and would be onto where they were headed once they left the undergrid.

"We could fashion a walkway underneath. It'd be slight, but we could do it," Clu suggested. Flynn thought on it, but then considered again the peremeter breach as soon as they got into the transitway he had coded.

"Damn you, Tron, you've got me doubleguessing everything now." he swore under his breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tron blocked Flynn's way, looking like the cycles finally wore down on him.

"You could have just ASKED, Flynn. I would have obliged."

"Where's the adventure in that?" He couldn't help flashing that smug grin.

"FLYNN, WHY . . ." Tron caught himself and brought his tone back down. "Why does it have to be a fight? I'm not the MCP. And I told you about making another of you." Flynn couldn't help but back against Clu, making sure his utility stayed within touch. He felt more than saw Tron's guard draw closer.

"Telling me no is like holding out candy to me. I can't leave it alone. That's how I've always been." Tron just sighed a bit, then twitched his head up, signalling his guards to back off. Flynn waited a few ticks before relaxing. He clapped his hand on Clu's shoulder in a half-hearted sign that things were ok, then walked forward to the console. Tron turned as he passed by, the gold of the suit highlighting his handsome features in the dim light. Flynn almost felt regret that he had to do what he planned next. He began to type at the console, accessing the outside link and hoping it would hit Alan's pager, but then he turned just as Tron turned back to face Clu and his guard and slammed his hand onto Tron's disk, not even being subtle, just putting all his will into reverting Tron's code into what it was before the upswing of grid glitches. Tron's face widened in shock, eyes blazing bright gold before he fell foward in the overload, system glitching into reboot. 

Clu had done the same with the first of the guards, willing code to pull apart and rearrange, pulling Tron's code free of the original program. Clu was swift, better at reprogramming in a rush, and getting better with each target. Flynn used his own disk as distraction, hurling it to the extra guards that tried closing in on Clu, forcing them to deal with him. They kept their distance from him though while they had no compunctions about closing in on the utility. Flynn finally let his emotion take over logic and screamed at Clu to drop. As soon as he hit the floor, Flynn let loose a pulse at port level, shorting out every guard in it's path. Once it passed, Clu dared to look up and back to Flynn, who looked about ready to drop.

"Finish pulling the code," Flynn managed to whisper out before falling against the console to finish dialing out. Clu pulled himself back up to his feet and hit every guard disk as asked, reverting the guards to their previous identities. Once the connection confirmation was confirmed though, Flynn let himself slide to the floor to recover, letting half-sleep take over to replenish him.


	7. Chapter 7

Tron and Flynn both leaned back against the console, recovering. 

"I'm sorry man. I know. . . I shoulda trusted you, but I've had too many people screw me over." Flynn reached over, half expecting for Tron to shun the peace offering, and Flynn wouldn't blame him at all. The whole mess was his fault anyways. Tron looked over at Flynn, a look of almost incredulity on his brow, but didn't take his hand. Flynn shrugged and dropped it. The guards eventually all came back online, and staggered to the power alcoves to rest and reboot in absence of any order to do otherwise. Clu stood in the middle of the room, at a loss for any pertinant job now that the danger to him was over.

"I meant it, every single time. All you had to do was ask. What is it that keeps you from doing so?" Tron's eyes never left Flynn's face as he reached back to remove his shorted disk. There were two jagged cracks in it where Flynn had shoved everything into Tron. It was useless at the moment, and Tron flipped it at Flynn. He caught it easily enough, but couldn't hold back a small whistle at seeing how bad he had ruined it.

"I dunno, man. Pride, I guess." Tron's brow furrowed.

"Please fix it. I'll take you back to the portal platform when you're ready." He proceeded to get up and approach the console were Clu stood. Clu backed away, almost at a scramble the closer Tron got, but Tron reassured him before turning to tap at the smooth face of the console that the time that Tron would have destroyed him was over with.

"Do me a favor, Flynn."

"Yeah?" Flynn looked up from the coding of the disk, nearly done with repair.

"When you get back out there," He hesitated. "Destroy this place." Flynn gasped.

"NO WAY. Why would I want to do that? Why would YOU want me to do that?" Tron merely glared at him.

"Did the last several microcycles teach you nothing? This grid is pulling itself apart. I wasn't idly lording over random programs while I had you sequestered so I could do my job. The last thing I want was you or your clone getting in the way and making it worse. Like what you were doing to begin with." Flynn balked a little, then tossed Tron's disk back to him, which the program deftly caught and returned to its port.

"I could have gone out and fixed it from out there."

"No, Flynn. You would have coded yet more things to add to the destabilization. That's how this started. Just do it. Please." He finished with the console, and turned to give Clu a look that told the program in no uncertain turns to touch nothing before turning to leave the room. He waved for Flynn to follow.


	8. Chapter 8

They stood at the gleaming pillar of light, the platform surrounding it in a gentle arc. Tron stood and waited, looking out back to the city, waiting for another arrival, and Flynn was silent.

"It was fun while it lasted." Flynn was pushing to break the silence that clung to the air, despited the rhythmic cycles of humming coming from the portal. Tron did not budge to look his way, just hummed a noncommital noise. Flynn walked back to stand at Tron's shoulder, looking out to see a small colored light weaving between the uplifted pillars of rock hanging over the ocean.

"I'll do better next time." THAT earned him a look. A quizzical one, at best. Flynn just smiled and clapped Tron on the shoulder, and for a moment, Tron almost looked as if he would return the gesture, but instead, decided better of it and turned back to watch the incoming jet.

"Let Alan One in on it next time, if you insist on this course once again."

"Oh, hey, of course I will. I think I learned my lesson." The jet landed, and two guards brought out another, garbed in a rumpled up suit with two simple lines running down one arm.

"HEY, Bradley! Ever thought you'd get to see the inside of a computer?" Even halfway down the stairway, he could see the exasperation cross Alan's brow. Tron betrayed no expression at seeing his user finally stand before him, but Alan wasn't as stoic about it. Flynn just watched Alan's face flood with shock at seeing thhe program that mirrored him.

"You have to leave now, Flynn. Remember that you need to wipe everything. Please." Flynn dropped his light attitude, and nodded. Tron took Alan's hand for a brief moment.

"It is an honor to finally meet you, Alan One. Unfortunate that it has to be so brief." Their hands slid apart as Flynn pushed his friend to the portal. 

"Who are you?" Alan couldn't help but be dumbfounded as he realized who it was even as Tron confirmed it. "Wow, now I know why Flynn calls me-" Tron shot him a serious look, but Flynn was quicker.

"Time to go, buddy. I can't thank you enough for figuring out how to get to me."

"It wouldn't have been a problem if you had just let me in on it in the first place. You're an IDIOT, Kevin Flynn." Alan's temper had finally overwhelmed his astonishment at the place.

"Well, you can yell at me when we get out." He turned Alan to take his disk and couple it with his own, looking back to Tron as they stepped into the beam.

"See you later, buddy." Flynn flashed that grin again at Tron across the platform, the program almost at the head of the steps as his sentries headed back to the jet.

"No, you won't. Goodbye, Flynn." 

The beam flashed brightly as the disks floated to the source above, then the users were gone.


End file.
